I went to this camp last year and absolutely loved it. First off, it's a great kick-start to the year. In March, you are just about ready to lose your mind with the winter blues. And Michaux's trails hold up incredibly well for early season riding. For many people, this camp will be the first opportunity they have to get on some singletrack after months and months of a long, cold winter. After all that time, it's good to not only tune-up your bike, but also refine your technical skills. Secondly, it's the perfect way to reconnect with your friends that you may not have seen since last race season.
The camp is basically split up into men and women. The women are led by Sue Haywood and Cheryl Sornson. For this year's session, I decided to work with Cheryl- because she is not only a great rider, but she excels at technical terrain and long-distance cycling- two areas in which I was developing interest.
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| The Women at Michaux |
Cheryl spent considerable amount of time instructing on body position, bike/body separation, braking, cornering, balance and wheelie/manuals over obstacles. It is exciting when you go to a camp like this and immediately recognize your improvements since the previous year. It is equally exciting to learn that you have so much more to improve upon. The learning never ends, thus your capabilities will continue to grow.
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| Cheryl instructing on body position |
I think the greatest strength about this camp is the ability to practice technique in a "safe" environment (although people still get hurt!) and then take that technique and immediately apply it on the trail. An example of this is with drops. Cheryl spent time instructing on how to properly drop off an obstacle with control and without going over your handlebars. In the morning, we used a wooden platform/ramp in the yard and practiced various heights of drops. After lunch, we went into the trails (Vista!) and used those skills to safely and efficiently drop down probably 10-15 rock drops within the singletrack. It was pretty awesome!
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| Refining Technique |
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| Ride Time |
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| Practicing ROCKS on Vista
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